Although governmental commissions are not the only available source of nonpartisan investigation and policy advice, their prestige, scale of operation, and national importance establish the commission as a unique political body. This volume provides both general discussions of commission communication and specific examples of critical analyses of commissions. Part One considers definitional and functional issues inherent in commission studies, and takes up such concerns as the constraints under which these entities operate. Part Two is devoted to case studies of historically, politically, or socially significant commissions, including the Warren Commission investigation of Kennedy's assassination, the President's Commission on Obscenity and Pornography in 1970, the Attorney General's Commission on Pornography in 1986 (the Meese Commission), the Rogers Commission investigation of the Challenger space shuttle disaster, and the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs. The cases are compared and contrasted, and the authors' research questions and analyses demonstrate the theoretical and methodological pluralism possible in the study of government commission communication. Recommended for scholars of political science, history, and political, rhetorical, small group, and organizational communication.

The book provides various EdgeAI concepts related to its architecture, key performance indicators, and enabling technologies after introducing algorithmic government, large-scale decision-making, and computing issues in the cloud and fog. With advancements in technology, artificial intelligence has permeated our personal lives and the fields of economy, socio-culture, and politics. The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into decision-making for public services is changing how governments operate worldwide. This book discusses how algorithms help the government in various ways, including virtual assistants for busy civil servants, automated public services, and algorithmic decision-making processes. In such cases, the implementation of algorithms will occur on a massive scale and possibly affect the lives of entire communities. The cloud-centric architecture of artificial intelligence brings out challenges of latency, overhead communication, and significant privacy risks. Due to the sheer volume of data generated by IoT devices, the data analysis must be performed at the forefront of the network. This introduces the need for edge computing in algorithmic government. EdgeAI, the confluence of edge computing and AI, is the primary focus of this book. It also discusses how one can incorporate these concepts in algorithmic government through conceptual framework and decision points. Finally, the research work emphasizes some design challenges in edge computing from applications viewpoint. This book will be helpful for data engineers, data scientists, cloud engineers, data management experts, public policymakers, administrators, research scholars and academicians.

A useful examination of the degree to which a new 'Cold Divide' separates Europe, this book places NATO/Russian relations within a wider analysis of post-Cold War political, social and economic divisions in Europe. It compares and contrasts the interests and perceptions of Western Europe, East Central Europe and Russia in the New European Order. It analyses the role of the European Union, NATO, the OSCE and the WEU in mediating conflict and responding to the challenge of the new European security agenda.

Against a backcloth of tumultuous events in Europe, the EU faces once again the fateful question of moving towards federal union or let flexible integration guide the Union. The sixth volume in Interdisciplinary European Studies explores the coexistence of deepening political integration and flexible patterns of integration in the EU. The book brings together scholars from economics, law, and political science to provide insights into issues with a bearing on the future of the EU: the crisis of rule of law and political values, the move towards a European defence union, the power of the new European public prosecutor's office, the prospects of financial stability through the Recovery and Resilience facility, and the state of European parliamentary democracy. The chapters are based on up-to-date research findings and succinct assessments of the current state of affairs and ongoing debates. They conclude with policy recommendations for decision-makers on European and national levels.

This book investigates the major internal and external pressures and constraints facing China as it enters the new century. It is widely recognised that in its capacity as a nuclear power and as a member of the UN's Security Council, China plays a major role in world politics. China is also a growing economic power, which according to some economists is projected to overtake the US 20 years from now. China has clearly emerged as the major power in the East Asian region and the major issues of contention in the region such as the tension on the Korean peninsula, the Taiwan issue and the conflicting territorial claims in the South China seas cannot be resolved without China's active participation.

Central Debates in British Politics focuses on British politics in a changing social, economic and institutional context. The book explores issues and debates using a variety of approaches and techniques. It is written and edited by a team of leading experts who analyse key issues in a highly structured and thematic manner.

Alexander Stubb, a participant in the 1996-97 and 2000 Inter-governmental Conferences analyzes the evolution of flexible integration from the early 1970s to the present day and beyond. He focuses in the process of negotiations which led to the institutionalization of flexibility in the Amsterdam and Nice Treaties. This book provides a valuable insider's view on historical decision-making in the EU.

Are you fed up with the divided and unequal society or suffocating laws and regulations of the country where you live? Ever dreamed of starting your own country or just want to understand how that happens? In this refreshing new book, Matt Qvortrup provides a step-by-step guide to forming an independent country, from organising a referendum and winning it, to receiving official international recognition, establishing a currency and even entering the Eurovision song contest. The book delves into the legal, economic and political problems of creating new states, using historical examples and anecdotes from all over the world to illustrate the obstacles to these campaigns. Qvortrup recounts his globetrotting experiences as an expert consultant on referendums to give a no-nonsense explanation of the many hurdles and barriers, as well as the opportunities for those who want to break free. -- .

The book describes the alliance, since the mid-1980s, of the entrepreneurs of the Chinese diaspora with the new locally based industrialisation that reform in China has allowed to flourish in its townships and villages. The synergy between these two derives from the ability of small non-bureaucratic actors on both sides to establish networks based on personal trust and reciprocity, producing a new kind of transformative development-from-below in which established Western and Japanese multinationals have little role.

"Governance of Public Sector Organizations a"nalyzes recent changes in government administration by focusing on organizational forms and their effects. Contributors to this edited volume demonstrate how generations of reform result in increased complexity of government organizations, and explain this layering process with multiple theories.

The collapse of the Soviet empire in 1991 removed a decades-long system of successful control of potential ethnic and regional conflict . The result was the eruption of numerous conflicts over state-building, some of which degenerated into violence and some of which were resolved or prevented by strategies of accommodation. This volume explores the common trends and differences in the responses of the new post-Soviet states to the problems of state-building in ethnically and regionally divided societies, focusing on the impact of ethnic and regional conflicts on post-communist transition and institutional development. The book will be essential reading for specialists and students alike who are interested in conflict regulation and post-Soviet politics.

This book provides the first in-depth study of healthcare reforms in post-communist Eastern Europe. Combining insights from comparative politics and public policy analysis, it examines health reforms in Slovenia, the Czech Republic, and Poland between 1989 and 2019. The book argues that the post-communist transformation of healthcare policy has entailed a process of policy learning, and that the countries' reform pathways were shaped by a series of initiatives aimed at applying market-oriented policy ideas in healthcare. The success of these initiatives has been influenced by three factors: policy legacies, political competition, and institutional configurations. The book offers a novel comparison of health reform in the region and policy changes more generally. It will appeal to scholars and students of public policy, health policy, and European politics.

This title assembles leading theorists of a new paradigm of political theory, 'State Crimes Against Democracy', undertaking judicious and devoted hacking exposing the elusive nodes and circuitry that propagate elite dominance in world affairs, and what can be done to restore the demos to democracy.

This is the first book on the U.S. presidential election system to analyze the basic principles underlying the design of the existing system and those at the heart of competing proposals for improving the system. The book discusses how the use of some election rules embedded in the U.S. Constitution and in the Presidential Succession Act may cause skewed or weird election outcomes and election stalemates. The book argues that the act may not cover some rare though possible situations which the Twentieth Amendment authorizes Congress to address. Also, the book questions the constitutionality of the National Popular Vote Plan to introduce a direct popular presidential election "de facto," without amending the Constitution, and addresses the plan's "Achilles' Heel." In particular, the book shows that the plan may violate the Equal Protection Clause from the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution. Numerical examples are provided to show that the counterintuitive claims of the NPV originators and proponents that the plan will encourage presidential candidates to "chase" every vote in every state do not have any grounds. Finally, the book proposes a plan for improving the election system by combining at the national level the "one state, one vote" principle - embedded in the Constitution - and the "one person, one vote" principle. Under this plan no state loses its current Electoral College benefits while all the states gain more attention of presidential candidates.

This book explores the leading role that cities can play in shaping progressive policies in collaboration with various stakeholders. It examines the timing of such shifts to progressivity in cities, the interactions that enable progressive actions to be developed and sustained, and the challenges and constraints facing progressive cities. The book approaches the themes using an array of methods to investigate how progressive city governments emerge, what constitutes a "progressive city" in terms of governance institutions, processes and outcomes and whether progressive cities are destined to be ephemeral or if they can be sustained over time. With its focus on the emerging role of local governments in shaping city futures, this book is useful for students, academics, government official and policy makers interested in geography, sociology, urban planning, public policy, political economy, social movements, participatory democracy and Asian and European studies.

An important contribution to the debate on forms of civil society in Africa and elsewhere, and to the global literature on dissent. In Humor, Silence, and Civil Society in Nigeria, Ebenezer Obadare offers an innovative perspective on the idea and reality of civil society. Mobilizing a wide range of concepts and insights from political science, African studies, sociology, cultural studies, media studies, anthropology, communications theory, and international development, Obadare develops a notion of civil society that radically departs from the literature's axiomatic focus on voluntary civic associations and focuses instead on more informal strategies of resistance, such as humor and silence. Compellingly argued, Humor, Silence, and Civil Society in Nigeria raises provocative questions on a topic of keen importance for students, scholars, and policymakers. Ebenezer Obadare is professor of sociology at the University of Kansas. He is coeditor of Civic Agency in Africa: Arts of Resistance in the 21st Century(James Currey, 2014).

First Published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This timely study analyzes the inner workings of the political and military control system used by the USSR and former communist regimes in Eastern Europe to rule the region until recent times. It then shows how these controls collapsed and were swept away by the revolutions in 1989. This up-to-date work describes current problems in East European security and points to future needs. This appraisal of the use of military and political power in the area is written for political scientists, military historians and analysts, for students and experts in East European studies and in international organization. Certain coercive and socializing mechanisms define the Soviet/Communist control system which was the key to the effectiveness of the Warsaw Treaty Organization and to the reliability of East European armed forces. The history covers the period from the end of World War II to the present. The work describes the disintegration of the system of controls during the 1980s and its collapse and the end of the WTO and previous military arrangements in 1989. The study analyzes the 1989 revolutions and points to new problems and uncertainties facing East European states as they depoliticize their armed forces and renationalize their foreign security policies.

This book discusses in detail the great historical and social significance of the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI). It consists of seven chapters, each focusing on a specific issue related to AI, such as ethical principles, legal regulations, education, employment and security. Adopting a multidisciplinary approach, it appeals to wide readership, ranging from experts and government officials to the general public.

This work provides an introduction to the major issues that face Ukraine today and explains how they were shaped. Contrasting the generally bleak picture that international media reports present, it suggests that Ukraine has actually accomplished a great deal in a short time. In seven years, from 1991 to 1998, Ukraine went from being a little-known nation within a non-democratic state to an internationally recognized independent country. It established a political identity for itself separate from Russia and made steps towards creating a democratic political system including adopting a new Constitution. All this was done without the shedding of blood. The book looks at these and other issues. The first chapter provides a broad historical background and explains why history is important in the region today. Chapter 2 describes Ukraine's starting point in 1991. It explains the legacies left behind by the Soviet Union: what Ukraine had and what it lacked when it declared independence. The remaining chapters provide an overview of the main political, economic, social, cultural and foreign policy issues in Ukraine. A separate chapter is devoted to Ukrainian-Russian relations.

The debate on governance originates in the OECD world. At the latest since the postcolonial debate, we know that we need to "test" our assumptions under radically different conditions. This book offers an extended perspective of local self-governance by examining cases from South Asia, Africa, and Latin America, together with a study of militias in the USA. The chapters present a wide variety of local actors who pursue different notions of order legitimized by local traditions based on hierarchy or deeply rooted communalism, Islamic theology, or grassroots democracy. Some local actors claim a state-like authority and challenge the territorial state. In such cases, there is no longer "a shadow hierarchy" but opposition to the state. Different violent actors fight for supremacy, and the state is just one actor among others. The empirical studies presented in this book show how different kinds of local self-governance are combined with varieties of statehood, and thus contribute to an understanding of the notion of governance in a fundamental sense that goes beyond the special case of the OECD world.

"Research in Micropolitics: Political Decision Making, Deliberation and Participation" is the sixth in a series dating back to 1989 and third under the editorship of Delli Carpini, Huddy and Shapiro. The purpose of this series is to publish original essays on a variety of substantive, conceptual and methodological issues of relevance to political psychology, with particular emphasis on promising new areas of theory and research. The essays contained in this latest volume address three important and interrelated themes in the theory and practice of democratic politics: the use of information short cuts in political decision making; the role of deliberation in citizens' attitude and opinion formation; and, the pathways to civic and political participation.Drawing on well-established theory and findings from both political science and psychology (as well, on occasion, on the author's own original research) each essay provides an interpretative review of recent and important research. Taken together, the essays offer a valuable contribution to our understanding of the complex and context-dependent dynamics of mass politics today, pointing out questions that remain unanswered and promising ways to answer these questions in future research.